• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.21-31
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• 2004

Construction of highway would influence wildlife habitat being fragmented and deteriorated. It is inevitable to observe the death of animals that are killed by vehicles. Nonetheless the cause and status of animal roadkill have not been studied, and this study first attempted to analyze the roadkill in major highway in Korea. We collected 860 individuals of dead animals in Joongang Highway during 1996-2003. Among them Korean hare(Lepus sinensis) was totaled in 165 individuals(19.2%) with the highest figure; Korean racoon dog(Nyctereutes procyonoides) was 146(17.0%); Korean squirrel(Sciurus vulgaris) 56(6.5%); Korean roe deer(Capreolus capreolus) 26(3.0%). Domestic animals was totaled in 232 individuals(27.0%); domestic dog(Canis familiairis) 25, and domestic cat(Catus felis) 207. This study also categorized habitat as mountain-mountain, mountain-plain, mountain-river, plain-plain, plain-river, river-river in each side of the road. Habitat of mountain-plain was the heightest with 296(38.9%) individuals followed by mountain-mountain with 263(34.6%). This indicates that wild animals associated with mountain habitat was most influenced by the construction of roads. This study implied that we should mitigate the roadkill by designing artificial construction such as eco-bridge, fences along the sideway, and boxes under the highway, underdrain structure, etc. The monitoring and cause of habitat fragmentation with GIS approach should be followed to reduce the roadkill.

• Journal of Veterinary Clinics
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.282-287
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• 2014

The negative impacts of roads on wildlife mortality have been well documented, and one of the most significant impact is wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVCs) in most countries throughout the world. While road impacts on wildlife are a truly global concern with a large socio-economic cost, few researches in Korea have been quantified road-kill occurrence on highways or identified extensively seasonal and geographic patterns of this phenomenon. Therefore, we analyzed highway mortality of wild mammals in Korea using database from five years of nation-wide data on WVCs, and estimated road-kill density by standardizing on per km and per $10^3$ vehicle basis. During 2008 through 2012, a total of 10,940 wildlifes were reported killed on highways, with an average of 2,188 cases per year. There were 2,376 road-kills in 2012, and this equates to 0.01 road-kills per km per week or one road-kill every 88.5 km per week. For time of day, road-kills occurred more frequently in the early morning (05:00-08:00, 38.3%), and day of week did not have a significant influence in any individual year. The road-kill was highest in the spring (March- May, 33.0%) and least in the winter (December-February, 16.1%), and the most frequently killed native species were of Korean water deer (79.7%), raccoon dog (12.7%), Korean hare (3.1%), and leopard cat (1.2%). The overall standardized kill-rate (number/10 km/1,000 vehicles/month) in 2012 was 0.057 with highest on Dangjinyeongdeok highway (0.476), followed by Yeongdong (0.274), Sooncheonwanju (0.233), Iksanpohang (0.187), and Joongang (0.150). This study highlights that the frequency of WVCs are prevalent throughout the highways in Korea. Further work is needed to determine whether such a level of mortality is sustainable from an ecological point of view.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.2049-2056
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• 2013

With the advance in information communication, the information age has come, and desire of human being in increasing. In this circumstance, the necessity for design for building of superhighways is arising to improve the mobility in the field of transportation, too. This study was conducted to analyze if driver can drive at a design speed on a superhighway with a design speed exceeding 120km/h. For this study, it was experimented if the running speed that makes a driver feel anxious, increased, when road alignment and standard improved, due to the differences of design speed. For the experiment, 30 subjects were asked to attach brain wave analyzers to bodies. Then, this study compared powers of ${\beta}$ waves generated, when they felt anxious, driving on the roads with different design speeds, and driving virtually through a simulator. Here, Kangbyeonbukro (90km/h), Jayuro(100km/h), Joongang Expressway(110km/h), and Seohaean Expressway(120km/h) were selected as experimental sections. While drivers drove on the Kangbyeonbukro and Jayuro at a speed of 80km/h - 130km/h, on the Joongang Expressway at a speed of 100km/h - 150km/h, and Seohaean Expressway at a speed of 110km/h - 180km/h, powers of anxiety EEGs(electroencephalogram) were compared, and during the simulation driving at the same speed of 110km/h - 180km/h, powers of anxiety EEGs were compared and analyzed. Moreover, the speed when anxiety EEGs increased, was statistically verified through paired t-test. As the result, the speed when anxiety EEGs increased during the simulation driving was nearly 30km/h higher than when they increased during the actual driving on the expressways, and anxiety EEGs increased at the same speed, when subjects drove on the roads with a design speed of 90km/h and 100km/h. It means that there were small differences in road alignment and standard. However, the running speed to make drivers feel anxious was increased at both roads with a design speed of 110km/h and 120km/h. It implies that drivers can drive at a higher speed, as road alignment and standard improve.